Heart and Soles

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This article was published 19/08/2023 (805 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Every youth in Birdtail Sioux First Nation now has a brand new pair of Under Armour running shoes thanks to a partnership between local athlete Tréchelle Bunn and the American sportswear company.

Bunn, a criminology student who has played hockey for the University of Manitoba, comes from the First Nation, located 135 kilometres northwest of Brandon. She’s also put on a reconciliation walk and run on Sept. 30, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, from the former Birtle Residential School to Birdtail Sioux for the past three years.

After Bunn was featured in Canadian Running Magazine for her work on the reconciliation run, she was contacted by Under Armour to see if she’d be interested in joining their Diversity Series, which would be featured in the same magazine.

“At first, I wasn’t really sure what it entailed, but then … I met with the Under Armour Canada team, and they wanted to partner with the reconciliation run in my community,” Bunn told the Sun.

In addition to sending Bunn Under Armour clothing and running shoes, the company offered to do a $5,000 product donation to her community. And although she knew outfitting all the young people on her reserve with running shoes would cost more than that, Bunn decided to ask Under Armour Canada if it was something they would consider.

“It was a shot in the dark,” she said. “I thought it’d be important for me to have running shoes for every youth so that they can have them for back to school, but also to participate in the reconciliation run, and everyone on the team was so supportive of the idea.”

Community organizers at the local school got in touch with each young person to find out their shoe size, and soon enough, over 200 boxes of shoes were stored in Bunn’s apartment. Yesterday, she put them all into a truck and drove the to her home community, where she handed them out to all its young people and encouraged them to sign up for the reconciliation run.

The whole process went very smoothly, Bunn said.

“Under Armour has been super helpful. They said that if there’s any size discrepancies, or exchanges were needed, they would accept any of the shoes back and then send the correct sizes back.”

The response from the youth and their families at Birdtail Sioux has been fantastic, Bunn said.

“A lot of the families are excited, and I think it’s really getting everyone kind of geared up for the run as well. I know that that’s something that a lot of people look forward to.”

The in-person half-marathon, which participants can choose to run or walk, has had a positive impact on Bunn’s community, from the elders, survivors of residential schools and their families, and the families of children who never made it home.

“For a lot the survivors, they try to walk as far as they can,” she said. “It’s also good for them to see that there’s so many people – not just within our community, but also the non-Indigenous community – that are coming out and supporting that, paying tribute to them and honouring them.”

To register for the Reconciliation Run, visit reconcilationrun.ca by Sept. 29. To be guaranteed a medal and T-shirt for the event, register before Sept. 1.

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